Editing Thorstein Veblen (section)

===Early life and family background===
Veblen was born on July 30, 1857, in [[Cato, Wisconsin|Cato]], [[Wisconsin]], to [[Norwegian Americans|Norwegian-American]] immigrant parents, Thomas Veblen and Kari Bunde.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Veblen |first=Florence |date=1931 |title=Thorstein Veblen: Reminiscences of His Brother Orson |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2570246 |journal=Social Forces |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=187–195 |doi=10.2307/2570246 |jstor=2570246 |issn=0037-7732}}</ref> He was the sixth of twelve children.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:ThorsteinVeblenHouse.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Thorstein Veblen Farmstead]] in 2014]]

His parents had emigrated from [[Valdres]], Norway to [[Milwaukee]], Wisconsin, on September 16, 1847, with few funds and no knowledge of English. They migrated to Milwaukee via [[Drammen]], [[Hamburg]] and [[Quebec]].<ref name=":3" /> The trip took four and a half months.<ref name=":3" /> Despite their limited circumstances as immigrants, Thomas Veblen's knowledge in carpentry and construction, paired with his wife's supportive perseverance, allowed them to establish a family farm in [[Rice County, Minnesota]], where they moved in 1864.<ref name=":0">{{cite book| last= Jorgensen | first= Henry | year= 2017 | title= Thorstein Veblen: Victorian Firebrand | publisher= Routledge| page= 14|isbn= 9780765602589}}.</ref><ref name=":3" /> (The [[Thorstein Veblen Farmstead|Veblen farmstead]], located near the town of [[Nerstrand, Minnesota|Nerstrand]], became a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1981.)<ref>{{cite web| url= http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1543&ResourceType=Building |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120901191209/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1543&ResourceType=Building |archive-date= September 1, 2012 |title=Thorstein Veblen Farmstead  |access-date= January 3, 2020|work=National Historic Landmarks Program|publisher= National Park Service}}</ref> Kari Bunde was not formally trained as a physician, but she frequently provided medical treatment to surrounding areas.<ref name=":3" />

Veblen began his schooling at age five. Although [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] was his first language, he learned English from neighbors and at school. His parents also learned to speak English fluently, though they continued to read predominantly Norwegian literature with and around their family on the farmstead. The family farm eventually grew more prosperous, allowing Veblen's parents to provide their children with formal education. Unlike most immigrant children of the time, Veblen and all of his siblings received training in lower schools and went on to receive higher education at nearby [[Carleton College]]. Veblen's sister, Emily, was reputedly the first daughter of Norwegian immigrants to graduate from an American college.<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Melton |first= William |date= 1995 |title= Thorstein Veblen and the Veblens |url= http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume34/vol_34-02.pdf |journal= Norwegian-American Studies |volume= 34 |pages= 23–56 |doi= 10.1353/nor.1995.a799270 |s2cid= 247622007 |access-date= February 12, 2019 |archive-date= February 13, 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190213123748/http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume34/vol_34-02.pdf |url-status= dead }}</ref> The eldest Veblen child, Andrew Veblen, ultimately became a professor of physics at [[Iowa State University]] and the father of one of America's leading mathematicians, [[Oswald Veblen]] of [[Princeton University]].{{sfn|Dobriansky|1957|pp=6–9}}<ref name=":3" />

Several commentators saw Veblen's ethnic-Norwegian background and his relative "isolation from American society" in [[Minnesota]] as essential to the understanding of his writings. [[Harvard University]] sociologist [[David Riesman]] maintained that Veblen's background as a child of immigrants meant that Veblen was alienated from his parents' original culture, but that his "living in a Norwegian society within America" made him unable to "assimilate and accept the available forms of [[Americanism (ideology)|Americanism]]" completely.{{sfn|Riesman|1953|p= 206}} According to [[Stanford University]] historian [[George M. Fredrickson]] (1959), the "Norwegian society" that Veblen lived in (Minnesota) was so "isolated" that when he left it "he was, in a sense, emigrating to America."{{sfn|Fredrickson|1959}}